The Toncoin price crashed hard for the second consecutive day after authorities arrested Pavel Durov, the founder, CEO, and majority owner of Telegram. He was arrested in France and will likely be held for a while.
Telegram founder arrested
Pavel, who was recently interviewed by Tucker Carlson, will likely be charged on multiple offences like fraud, money laundering, and complicity. He may also be charged with evading Russian sanctions since Telegram does a lot of business in the country.
It is still too early to determine the outcome of the lawsuit and what to expect. However, in an X post, the TON Foundation maintained its support of Pavel. Elon Musk also chimed in, sending an X post with the hash tag #FreePavel.
Today more than ever, we see the need for freedom of speech and decentralization – two causes championed by @durov and core tenets of the TON ethos.
We are confident that the TON and TG communities will emerge from this with greater strength. #FREEDUROV
– TON Ventures
— TON_Ventures (@TON_Ventures) August 25, 2024
Tucker Carlson also expressed his support for Pavel. In a long X post, he noted that Pavel left Russia when the government tried to censor Telegram. He also added that the arrest happened in a Western country and a NATO member.
Pavel Durov left Russia when the government tried to control his social media company, Telegram. But in the end, it wasn’t Putin who arrested him for allowing the public to exercise free speech. It was a western country, a Biden administration ally and enthusiastic NATO member,… https://t.co/F83E9GbNHC
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 24, 2024
News of his arrest pushed Toncoin significantly lower, reaching a low of $5.37, its lowest point since August 6 of this year. It has now dropped by over 35% from its highest point this year.
As it dropped, the token also moved below the 50-day and 200-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMA), meaning that bears are in control.
Focus turns to Bitcoin Dogs
Now, with the TON token falling, analysts and traders are focusing on the Bitcoin Dogs price, which is starting to gain momentum among crypto traders.
The price has performed as most analysts were expecting. In most periods, cryptocurrencies drop sharply after starting to trade as many of the presale buyers start selling. This is the case for Bitcoin Dogs, which raised over $13.5 million in its token sale.
The token has numerous potential catalysts that will push its price higher in the coming weeks. First, it has become significantly cheap as it was trading at $0.02456, down from a high of $0.12 this week. This makes it more attractive to contrarian investors who believe that it will bounce back.
Second, Bitcoin Dogs will likely benefit when interest rates start falling in September. Jerome Powell, the head of the Fed, has confirmed that rate cuts are coming soon. If this happens, analysts expect that the Fed will deliver three cuts this year and continue the trend in 2025.
Fed cuts are good for risky assets like crypto as we saw in 2020 when the bak was slashing rates because of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time, many cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu went mainstream and Bitcoin reached its all-time high of $69,000.
Third, Bitcoin Dogs developers have a lot in store, including more exchange listings and the growth of its ecosystem through new product launches. For example, they plan to more to key areas like NFTs and staking.
Historically, we have seen many meme coins crash and then bounce back. For example, Pepe crashed hard in 2023 and has now bounced back by over 1,600% from its lowest point on record. Learn more about Bitcoin Dogs here.